Undeterred, I quickly assembled new seed. My family and I took advantage of the recent deluge of rain in the region. We switched to the basic technology of direct seeding which is simply, um, seeding directly into the ground (as opposed to out planting trees from a nursery). Direct seeding is equally wrought with potential problems such as animal browsing, weed competition, and a somewhat short time frame to establish, but results are possible. I also prefer direct seeding as it requires low inputs (in this case, the cost of tree sacks and using valuable compost and other organic components), adheres to principle numero uno of Conservation Agriculture – minimally disturbs soil, and takes relatively little time away from field crop time.

We also planted roughly 500 ultra-painful Sisal around the family field 100 cm apart. In addition to the benefit of all the rain, most farmers tie up their animals so they don’t graze on other community member’s fields. So, bonus, we have yet another reason to continue establishing the first live fence in the community. Wish us luck (and rain).

Respectfully yours,

Dan

Bonus material -How does one direct seed?:

• Select seed appropriate for application. In this case, a living fence with seeds planted 20 cm apart, two per hole. Direct seeding also applies to alley cropping, vegetable production, and Conservation Agriculture techniques.
• Clear weeds from installation area
• Dig either Zai holes, planting pits, or using a stick to jab a hole to install seed
• Cover with soil. Amend if amendments available.
• Pray for rain
• Weed every few weeks. Leave weeds on surface as mulch or add them to compost pile. The soil around their roots is loaded with juicy, life starting bacteria ideal for composting.
• Prune plants to promote dense, thick growth capable of stopping monkeys, cows, goats, and other field grazers.

As a Sustainable Agriculture Volunteer here in Peace Corps Senegal, one of my primary work objectives is to participate in our Seed Extension Program. It introduces farmers to improved varieties of the most commonly grown field crops such as corn, millet, sorghum, rice, red and white beans. The improved varieties have special characteristics that set them apart from their lesser genetic relatives. These characteristics, for example, could be disease, pest, or drought resistance, better growth in depleted soils, or faster maturity rates allowing farmers to make multiple harvests in one season.

PCV’s distribute the seed in one or two kilo allotments per variety. At harvest time, the goal is to collect double the amount of seed from the farmer as was initially distributed. That seed is stored by the PCV during the dry season and redistributed again to new farmers the following rainy season.

I originally distributed my seed to seventeen farmers in the community. The village chief (he’s also my host father) and my counterpart decided on the farmers. My only requirement of them was to include all of the village’s ethnic groups. The farmers were all male as traditionally men and boys do most of the field crop work. Women and girls are delegated to the super tedious task of weeding. However, to my surprise, my father and counterpart choose five women to give the rice too. This brings my total farmer count to twenty two and makes me extremely happy as the women are the most open to change.

So far so good. All of the seed has been distributed and is now in the hands of the farmers. The millet was seeded two weeks ago. It has emerged and has already been weeded once at many sites. I’ve observed several of the farmers planting the white bean varieties as well. Soon the corn, sorghum and rice will be sown. I large rain just occurred two nights ago, so I imagine once I go back to site tomorrow, they’ll have sown more. I except the rice to be seeded very shortly, as well. Most of the farmers are asking me about spacing the seeds.

As the season progress, I’ll keep everyone posted as to what’s going on around the program.

During our three-day Sustainable Agriculture Summit this week, we visited a volunteer’s Master Farmer site to see the USAID/Wula Nafaa sponsered tool in action.

Basically a metal blade is pulled by animal traction (cow, horse, donkey). It creates a 10-15cm deep trench with minimum soil disturbance. The thin trench is filled with organic materials and/or fertilizers then is lightly back-filled with soil.

The farmer mentioned that the popular method of creating Zhai Holes (another method of conservation farming where 20-40cm “pits” are dug, amended, and seeded) he currently employs takes longer and requires much more manual labor. He’s eager to give the Ripper a try again after seeing how quickly and effective it was.

After the visit to the MF’er (pun not intended) and reviewing my pics I realized I could create a quick and simple way to show you just how easy this thing is:

At a cost of around 18.000 mille (around $35), the ripper isn’t entirely out of the reach of farmers. In fact, our host Master Farmer even mentioned he’s pay 30.000 mille for one. It has applications in both field crops and larger scale vegetable production, can be produced by local welders, and minimally disturbs soil, which is a major contributor to crop failures here. I’m eager to work with a business volunteer near me as well as my own Master Farmer to implement this potentially amazing tool.

Two painful but poignant interviews with volunteers in the area. Send us breakfast cereals. 

Demonstration Plot: My family gave me some land to use as a demo plot in the gardening area where ALL the women in the village gather to grow their veggies for subsistence and selling in the market. I outplant (transplant) from my pepiniere as the plants are ready (my new mantra: leaves of five, they’ll stay alive, any less, and it’s just a guess). I’ve thoroughly mulched the beds with two different typed of grasses (seed heads removed) to retain moisture. So far I’ve only had to water these beds once per day while the ladies are watering their gardens at least once. More likely 2-3 times per day. Hopefully they’ll adopt this method.

Inventory: In this same area (a water way feeding the mangroves a few km away – hello palm trees!) I’m taking inventory of who’s growing what and for what purpose. Man, there’s a lot of onions these days. Counting 16,000 onions is, um, boring.

Home Gardening: I’ve spread my gorgeously dark, rich compost all over my back yard, double-dug five beds, started a Morninga intensive beds, a second compost pile, a peppeniare and started cucumber/lettuce combos as well as planted several tomatoes from the rice fields where my demo plot is. Also soaked neem laves in water for three days, strained, and created way to much solution for me to even use. Added dish detergent (50ml) to 1 liter water and brushed on to plants in garden and at rice fields.  So far so good. Created compost tea from Compost pile #1 and added it to my pepiniere in the rice fields.

Nursery Preparation: Spent one day prepping seed for tree sacks to be out planted as live-fencing during the rainy season (June or July). Seeds treated with Phostox and store in air-tight containers.

Mangrove Evaluation: Last year, PC vols got together with locals and attempted to replant mangroves already feeling the pressure of human activities (over-harvesting, climate change). We went to evaluate their efforts and get a scientifically accurate assessment of the results. I ended up counting the dead ones! The results? I don’t know! Someone else did the calculations, but roughly, we determined that half of the installs survived, which I think is a good thing.

Master Farmer: We’ve plotted his land, will be drawing to scale, and are hoping to have some demos their in the next few months.

Anyway, personally, I’m having a blast. I love working in the garden. I’m getting to know more people in the community and slowly but surely, things are happening. Although a lot of the above efforts seem random and disjointed, my ultimate goal is to show results through my efforts, establish a reputation in the community as someone who is knowledgeable and contributory, and eventually find a female counterpart within the community to lead demos and disseminate knowledge in a slow, sustainable way.

PC doesn’t make it easy to make a rash, life-altering decision though. In fact, through the nearly year-long application process, there are many opportunities to bail out. New job opportunities arise, priorities change, or you just realize from reading PC-member’s blogs that this is no romantic travel fantasy. That other parts of the world wont place the importance on your projects that we would at home. That some of the people you’ll be working with may die from HIV or other diseases while you’re in service . That domestic abuse is sometimes the norm.

Perhaps Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness sums it best:

“No, I don’t like work. I had rather laze about and think of all the fine things that can be done. I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work, – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”

One month before departure and only half full.